Anita Hill Speaks To Essence About Sotomayor’s Nomination

Anita Hill will always be linked to the Senate confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court. In 1991, she gave an explosive testimony during the confirmation of Justice Clarence Thomas that forced a generation of women to stand up against sexual harassment. On the cusp of the Senate hearing for President Obama‘s Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, Hill, today a professor of law at Brandeis University, talked to ESSENCE.com about Sotomayor, a former classmate of hers at Yale Law School, and the legacy of her Senate Judiciary testimony all these years later.

ESSENCE.COM: What do you think of Sonia Sotomayor as a Supreme Court nominee?
ANITA HILL: I think it’s an excellent choice, just on the face of the selection. Here’s a person who has years of experience on the bench, and has distinguished herself in private practice as well, and has been a prosecutor. I think she’s got an incredible breadth of experience. Clearly she’s an exceptional mind, having done very well at her undergraduate school, Princeton, and law school at Yale. But that’s just the beginning. There are other things that I think make her a great choice.